Almost Forgot

...to write a post.

So, here I am. At my desk. In my office. With nothing. Again.

I can't even imagine what photograph to throw up here. I took some pics of a spider outside the house a few days ago but they didn't turn out. It was night and he/she/it was pretty flimsy looking...not one of those multi-colored fat-bodied jobs that normally takes up residence in a never-empty cookie jar.

Speaking of cookie jars...

I made these. From scratch. Tonight. Ate dough. Had sugar high. Had sugar crash. Ate warm cookie. Yum.

I can make cookies. And then I can take a picture of them. And put it on my blog. And call it a post.

So, do you want to see the best of the worst spidey photos? Since they're the best of the worst, it's quite possible that Tyler took some of them. We traded off. The pictures looked much better on the back screen of the camera than when I downloaded them and saw them on my computer screen.

Anyway, enough excuses...actually, no excuses...here are the spidey pictures...








In a side note...or should I say a bottom note?...the fire in Santa Barbara is a-hella-ugly. The winds are whipping around my house so I can only imagine how bad it is in SB. A lot of people are losing their homes. Three firemen are down the street from me in serious condition at the Sherman Oaks Burn Center. They're reporting 0% containment on the 11 o'clock news. Very sad all the way around.

Happy Birthday, Tammy Wynette

Today we are celebrating Tammy Wynette's 67th birthday. Who;s bringing the cake? She deserves a very pretty homemade cake.

Tammy Wynette

5/5/42-4/6/98

This girl could sing...

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Tammy Wynette and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Paul Butterfield

I don't have to tell you who Paul Butterfield is, right? Or do I?

I'll let Michael Bloomfield tell you, "You can quote me on this, man...Butterlfield's something else. He feels it, he's in there all the way. Butterfield is a blues singer. There's no white bullshit with Butterfield, white-colored thing with him. He's there. And if he was green it wouldn't make any difference. If he was a planaria, a tuna fish sandwich, Butterfield would be into the blues."

Paul Butterfield passed away 22 years ago. I had some good times with him...and miss his presence on the planet.

Paul Butterfield
12/17/42-5/4/87

I love this video...not only for Paul Butterfield but for all the shots of the audience..Monterey 1967...must have been cool to be there...

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Paul Butterfield and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Road Trip

A whole lotta fun...

Los Angeles, CA
2
San Francisco, CA
2
Vancouver, BC
2
Calgary, AB
2
Great Falls, MT
2
Helena, MT
2
Butte, MT
2
Chubbuck, ID
2
Lovelock, NV
2
Reno, NV
2
Laytonville, CA
2
San Francisco, CA
2
Los Angeles, CA

Me.

Jaimie.

Pumpkin.

5/8
2
5/26

Let me know if you're on this route.

We'll have coffee.

Or lunch.

Or dinner.

Or a sleepover.

The Anatomy of a Movie Poster

...well, at least part of a movie poster.

I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone out there but it's something I'm working on at the moment and thought it might be fun to share.

One of my long time very favorite clients is Cinetel Films. You may not know them by name but if you watch the Sci-Fi channel - wait, that's wrong isn't it...didn't they just spend whole pile of dough to change their brand to SyFy? - well, anyway, if you watch it you've probably tuned in to a Cinetel film. They produce a lot of movies in the creature genre (Ogre, Hydra, Snakehead Terror and Beyond Loch Ness) and in the disaster thriller genre (Polar Storm, Stonehenge Apocalypse, Shockwave, Earth Storm and Solar Attack).

For the most part these movies come to me when they are in the earliest stage of their development, as in not only is there not a movie, there isn't even a script. It's a synopsis and a title that may or may not change as I am doing what is called pre-sell key art. Meaning I start with nothing and am given nothing to work with. No pictures, no actors, no nothing...well, maybe the name of a creature or some kind of newfangled storm that promises to be the end of us all.

For the most part it's a fun and interesting creative process. But sometimes it's a pain in the ass because there's really only so many ways to depict the end of the world starting with nothing. And it's extra-hard to photographically build a creature that looks both real and menacing (I once had to create one called the Bone Eater with only the information that it was reptilian).

But this week it's a disaster movie currently called Earth's Final Hour. I'm creating a 4-page brochure that has a teaser cover, then city in destruction on the inside (not an easy task btw), followed by a synopsis on the back.

My first go-round on the art resulted in a thing I did with planet Earth to illustrate what would happen if the Earth stopped rotating. I originally had this idea for the inside but they decided they wanted something more down-to-earth for the inside instead of "space." But now I'm trying to sell the little thing I created as a sort of symbol on the back below the synopsis. I sent the new version out to them a couple of hours ago and now I get to wait for comments.

So, I thought I'd go layer-by-layer to show you the Earth thingy I created.

This is the first layer, on the bottom of the pile:

Obviously, it's a picture of an eclipse, although when I'm done it will not look like an eclipse (hopefully). First thing I did was color balance it to change the lit rim on the left to blue.

The next layer is Earth...

...which I sized and put directly over the dark part of the eclipse picture. And masked out the starry starry night (name that tune).

Then I put another layer of the eclipse over the Earth as a hard light layer at 45% opacity and masked out the right half - when the grey part is on the layer it lets what's underneath it show through...in this case the right side of the Earth. The mask is a little sloppy but I'll fix that if the idea ends up in the finished piece.

The next layer is another stock photo from space. I just used this corner of it to illustrate the half of the planet that would be facing the sun.

This is the same photo...
...after I created a mask to hide the parts I didn't want to show. Yes, another sloppy mask that will be fixed.

Once the layers are all on top of each other, they look like this...

And that is how I created something from nothing...with three existing space photographs I plunged our planet into certain death.

Lucky for you my powers don't extend beyond the photoshop file.

Or do they?

Think about that before you go to sleep tonight.

Sweet dreams.

You can see more of the stuff I do with photoshop and the creative side of my brain on my website.

Oh No

Fuck. It's already tomorrow. And I didn't post yesterday.

Wait. Since I haven't been to sleep yet, technically it's still today. Right?

So, unless I bore myself to death (I mean sleep) with these words - which is entirely possible - I'm still good. Plus I can set the clock back so it records as yesterday*...or as I like to call it, today.

Been a bit of a crazy week. The clock is ticking down to Cannes. Which means I'm busy doing work. The kind of work I actually get paid for. Although this year is about 20% of last year so I am here to confirm, yes, there is a recession.

I'm ever so late with my post because I worked all day long then had an 8pm dinner meeting with my director and didn't get back from until after midnight. Met a famous actress (who has a combined 176 IMDB credits for film, tv and producing) at the restaurant. My director was talking to her when we came in. Of course I didn't recognize her - I rarely recognize anyone. But she was super nice and down-to-earth. The director did the 'this is...' saying my name and the actress, with no airs about her, extended her hand and did the 'hi, I'm...' saying her first and last name even though I would have known who she was on the first name. I was impressed.

Shit...I should have played tacky tourist and taken a stealth iphone photo of her so I'd have something for my photo of the day. Oh no, no photo.

Can't have that. Here's something I just snapped of Tyler. He's been sitting on my floor yakking at me while I've been trying to get this damn post finished...

Post finished. Good night.




*FYI...I cheated. This was actually posted on May 2 @ 2:39AM. Is it still cheating if I cop to it?

Darrell Anthony Sweet

It was ten years ago today that Nazareth drummer Darrell Anthony Sweet suffered a fatal heart attack in Indiana while on tour, after playing in the band since 1968 (that's 41 years at the same job, people)...which would probably break Cal Ripken's record.

Darrell Anthony Sweet

5/16/47-4/30/99

You gotta love Nazareth's interpretation of this Joni Mitchell ballad - yes, I said ballad...

Rock on, Darrell!

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Darrell Anthony Sweet and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Ol' Skool vs. Digital CONTEST RESULTS

First, let me thank all of you who took the time to enter. I hope you enjoyed the process, even if you didn't win.

This was a really interesting contest for me. It was very exciting to see the answers people gave and I was especially entertained by those of you who added your comments.

Only two people got all the answers right. Just seven people got only one wrong. The majority of the entrants got two or more wrong. I have to admit that these results really surprised me. At first, I thought it might be too easy when Tyler picked them all within a couple of minutes, only pausing on #3. But I chalked it up to him being a photographer and having gone to film school. But when Jaimie - who is very inexperienced when it comes to photography - was looking at the blog while I was on the phone with her and got them all right in a matter of five minutes, then proceeded to give me the exact same reasoning that Tyler gave, well...I was completely gobsmacked.

But then the entries started coming in. Two people on day 1 had just 1 wrong. The two people who got them right came a couple of days later, after I finally sent out to my mailing list. I guess it wasn't so easy after all. There was really no rhyme or reason to people's answers. Even with all the data, I can't point to why so many people had trouble figuring them out. And now I can't even figure out how to apply the data for a definitive theory, nor can I say people tend to prefer film over digital or vice versa. I'm going to give the overall response below each picture and maybe one of you brilliant people can tell me what it all means...

#1 Wavy Gravy shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

1a - FILM
More people got this set right than wrong. Only one of the 7 got this one wrong.

1b - DIGITAL

#2 Paul Kantner shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

2a - DIGITAL
More people got this set wrong than right.
Two of the seven 1-wrong answer people got this one wrong.

2b - FILM

#3 Damian Marley's drummer shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

3a - FILM
I also thought this set would be the most difficult one because the
photos are so similar, but more people got it right than wrong.
Only one of the seven got this set wrong.

3b - DIGITAL

#4 Damian Marley's bass player shot at the Harmony Festival, June 2008:

4a - DIGITAL
Way more people got this set right than wrong,
except two out of the seven got it wrong.

4b - FILM

#5 Fish shot at BB King's NY, June 2008:

5a - DIGITAL
This set was only one off from being 50-50, and
only one of the seven got it wrong.

5b - FILM

Are you surprised at which were film and which were digital? The way Tyler and Jaimie came up with their answers was based on looking at the backgrounds of each photo. They said the blur was smoother on the pictures shot with film (well, I think that's what they said). Does that make sense to you?

I was hoping I would find my answer by asking the two people who got them all right how they chose their answers. So I sent them this email, not mentioning that they had them right.

Can you please tell me how you chose the answers you picked in this contest? And how you came to enter?

John was the first to respond:

I am on your mailing list and received an e-mail to enter the contest from you. I met you at the Fest for Beatles Fans about 2 years ago and bought 2 of your books.

I am an amateur photographer myself and saw various things in each of the photos that led me to choose film vs. digital. For instance, I noticed some of the blurring of the light and shadows on some photos which is more indicative of film vs. digital. Also, digital to me seems to smooth out some of the detail where film picks everything up. The ones I thought were film seemed more natural looking and had more detail. I really just stared at them for a few minutes each and made my choices.

Then Kevin wrote:

You said in your note that you saw a difference between film and digital, and preferred film, so I tried to choose the one I thought was ‘better’. That part seemed straightforward, if not exactly easy to my untrained eye, but then I noticed a pretty clear difference between the sets, one shot was always darker (or lighter) than the other, and I didn’t always think the darker (or lighter) one was better, so I was pretty sure I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and just picked the ones I liked best without thinking too much. I think I saw your note about the contest on FB. How did I do? I should add that my colleagues never listen to my opinions regarding the aesthetic quality of our books so I won’t be shocked if I got them all bass akwards.


Does that solve the question? Not really, because other people made comments on their entries that they preferred film but then picked several of the digital shots as film. And I have to be honest, after adamantly raving about the images that came up on my screen as I scanned my negatives, once I put the photos side by side with the digital I had to admit that I thought a couple of the digital looked better than the film :-(.

So, now that you know which is which, and the general proportion of the vote, can any of you solve this debate for me once and for all? What's better? Film? Or digital?

And the winners are...

The Grand Prize Winner of the framed Frank Zappa print is Kevin Becketti, because his email arrived two hours in advance of Second Place Winner, John Young, who takes home the Ringo Starr print...

And Honorable Mentions go to the seven entrants who only missed one answer:

Steve Bastien
Bill Lantz
William Schaff
Cory Tucker
John Krill
Maureen Felk
Craig Nisker

Thanks again to those who played, and thanks to anyone who chimes in with their opinion in the comments section.

Steve Currie

Today is the anniversary of Steve Currie's passing. Do you know who he is?

Steve Currie

5/19/47-4/28/81

Steve was the bass player for Marc Bolan's T-Rex and, like Marc, he was killed in a single-car crash.

Here's some Hot Love for you...

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Steve Currie and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Happy Birthday Pete Ham

Yes, it was just a few days back that I was remembering Pete Ham on the anniversary of his passing and now is the day to celebrate his birthday.

And since it's his birthday I thought I'd lead off with this photo I took of Badfinger backstage where everyone looks to be in a celebratory mood. Pete is the one with the cig in his smiling mouth. Happy times.

Pete Ham
April 27, 1947 - April 23, 1975

I chose this video because even though he's not the "star" here, it's just him and George and I'm pretty positive that Pete is celebrating his birthday with him on the other side...

And since he's also partying with fellow bandmates Tommy Evans and Mike Gibbins, here they are having some fun in rehearsal...

Happy Birthday, Pete!!

Further Evidence John Mayer Sucks

I was going to post the results of the Ol' Skool vs Digital contest but I needed another day +1 because there's a birthday tomorrow.

Okay...I'm really not a John Mayer hater. Sometimes I think he's a bit egocentric... as in he thinks he's the shit and lets everyone know it... and as in he's really intelligent and has to prove it. But other than those small character flaws (we all have 'em right?), he's pretty much okay.

Now, I will ask you to check this out...John Mayer singing Glad To Be Unhappy on Jay Leno. Someone brought it to my attention and we stood here and watched/listened to it. I'll be honest. I said, "You know, John Mayer does have a certain quality to voice." And he does. There's a lot of his songs where I really like his singing.

Go ahead and take a look and listen to it now...



When it was about a third to half the way through, I asked to see if the 'other' version of the song was on youtube...the person found it and hit the play button...go ahead, you do it too...



One line in, we looked at each other...I uttered a little "ummm...". The second line in the person said something to the effect that 'John Mayer pretty much sucked on that song.'

Oh, did I mention he did this exercise more than once?





I can tell you right now, these two songs would have had John Mayer kicked off American Idol in the first Hollywood round. Simon Cowell would have had a hay day..."John, John, John...If you insist on doing Ol' Blue Eyes can you at least take a shot at making it your own? That was nothing more than a piss poor karaoke version of a great singer that you have no business trying to aspire to."

Hey John...we've heard/seen you imitate Jimi Hendrix. We let you get away with that. We even let you play with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and most recently, Jeff Beck. But going on stage thinking you can imitate Frank Sinatra is unthinkable.

Sorry, man, but these really sucked. Hopefully you are up in your new castle on the hill recording an amazing album - make that an amazing ORIGINAL album...rock and blues, okay? - of songs within your wheelhouse, so you can redeem yourself from rolling poor Frank over in his grave.

Please, everyone, feel free to agree or disagree in the comment section. There's nothing like a good debate.

Books and Zombies

My throat hurts. So I'm going to have to go with more pictures than words. Lucky for you.

This was my day. First stop the LA Book Festival at UCLA...

L.A. Book Festival...Tipped

The L.A. Book Festival was trying for me. Too many people. Everything looked the same. White pointy tents one after another.

Heather Thomas

Anyone remember her?

Mark Ebner Shoots Himself

Shooting himself with his own book turned into a gun by book artist Robert The.

Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg signs Twilight

I like this photo...Melissa in the background signing and the girl in front whispering in her friend's ear.

Then it was off to Hollywood Boulevard for a Zombie Walk...

The Joker

What would Hollywood Blvd be without him? This was a really quick portrait taken on the fly. I love it. One of my favorites of the day.

Zombie Quality You Can Taste

Who The Fuck Are You?

Zombie Zombie

Sad and Lonely Zombie

Zombie's have feelings too.

I, Zombie Better Than You, Zombie

You Shooting Zombie Shooting You

More Quality You Can Taste

Zombie Love

Hawaiian Zombie

Not to be confused with Hawaiian Barbie.

Don't Fuck With This Zombie

She will eat your brain.

What did you do today?

Last Day

I broke my favorite glass today. They don't make them anymore. I am not a happy camper. I'm hoping that it's not an omen of what's to come. Last day.

Oh, wait...that's not what I meant by Last Day.

Today is the last day to take your shot at my shot of Frank Zappa...and Ringo. I'm closing the contest off at 11:59pm.

If you haven't entered yet, you should. There's still lots of room at the top. And by doing so you are providing more data to the film vs. digital debate. It gives us all an opportunity to see if film still rules or if it is a dying breed and the future will made up of representing our existence in pixels. This is a huge and important issue people!

So stop whatever you're doing - that includes reading this post - click this link and take a few minutes to suss out (or just guess) which pictures are film and which are digital. It's fun, it costs you nothing and you might go home with this:

$300 Framed Frank Zappa

Or this:

Priceless Unframed Ringo Starr

I hope you win!!

Pete Ham

Badfinger's Pete Ham passed away 34 years ago today, just four days before he would have turned 28. Yes, he is a member of that elite club known as Forever 27.

Pete Ham
April 27, 1947 - April 23, 1975

While his is one of the more tragic stories rock'n'roll, a story that every budding musician should know, I'd prefer to celebrate Pete Ham today. So, let's say a prayer for him and his family, then pull out your Badfinger records or CDs or MP3s and turn them up good and loud for the next five days, all the way through his 62nd birthday.

You don't have any Badfinger records? Tsk, tsk...Okay, it's never to late to turn on to Badfinger...here's are couple of great songs to get you started...and there's plenty more on youtube to keep you going...





Don't forget to check out the Singer/Songwriter's Competition...for your chance to win a $300 framed Badfinger print and me to shoot you and design your CD cover.

You can see lots more pictures and learn more about Pete Ham and the 47 other musicians in my tribute book, Everybody I Shot Is Dead.

Irony or Poetic Justice?

I fell asleep around 1AM and woke up 45 minutes later... and couldn't fall back to sleep until after 4:30AM. Slept until around 10 and woke up beyond tired. Happy Earth Day. Can't somebody around here give me a full normal night's sleep?

I had a list a mile long of things I needed to accomplish today including, at the bottom, Stay Off The Internet. That is definitely something I want to do for 24 hours...but it couldn't be today. The note for today was that I didn't want to hang on Twitter or Facebook. As much as I love them both, they are a creative juice suck.

First thing I did was check my email. There were a bunch but nothing after 7:15AM. I didn't really think anything of it until I went on Twitter (yeah, I didn't even make it 10 minutes) to answer a couple of DMs. That's Direct Messages for those unfamiliar with the Twit lingo. I was answering one with a link to the two Zappa photos I have up on my website. That meant I had to go to my website and collect http://www.cheshercat.com/store-eisid-prints.html then go to the tiny url site and turn it into http://tiny.cc/gRzkm so it wouldn't eat up all 140 characters I get to use on a Twitter message.

After a minute of watching the progress wheel spin 'round and 'round going nowhere, I ended up on the Road Runner page. That's where I go when I enter a url that doesn't exist. I rechecked...same thing...opened a different browser, tried again and still got Road Runner.

My website had disappeared, as in evaporated or never even existed. And that, my friends, is a sinking feeling. Where could it have gone? Will I ever get it back? I went back to my email and checked for mail - still no new mail. I sent myself an email but it didn't come back. I checked the webmail online that routes my mail from my site host to my email software. Nothing in the inbox. I went on my gmail account and sent myself an email...it didn't come.

Then I went to my web hosting company's site...their's had disappeared too. Oh my God, it's Armageddon. I called the company. They weren't accepting phone calls. The lady on the recording said if I needed assistance to go to their website where I could participate in an online chat with them. Really? When your website has vanished into thin air?

Now, you're probably thinking that I am a complete dumbass because I must have I signed myself up with some rinky-dink-fly-by-night web hosting company and they've now emptied my bank account and run off to Tahiti. Well, you'd be wrong.

My website is hosted by one of the major companies. A company that couldn't possibly go completely down. Especially today. Today of all days. It just doesn't make any sense...can someone please explain...

How could EARTHLINK crash on EARTH DAY?

So, I ask, is that irony? Or is it poetic justice for the company trying to take over the universe. My website eventually appeared back on the scene around 3PM. Then I started to get some of my emails. It wasn't that I clicked Get Messages and was bombarded with 100 emails. There probably were that many, but they literally trickled in. I'd get one that was an hour old, then a few minutes later there would be a couple for the early morning, then a brand new one. I have no idea if I got everything. Hell, I just got one with an *:29AM time stamp. And I'm sure they obliterated the one from that guy I used to know that said, "If you call in the next 30 minutes you can claim the $100,000 I owe you."

Such is life.

If any of you wonderful people out there know a really reliable webhosting company that doesn't rake you (I'm really missing the arm and the leg I've had to give up to Earthlink) please let me know. I've been loyal too long.

Finally, don't forget, there's only 48 hours left to enter to win the $300 Zappa print. Don't miss out.

Pertinent to the film vs. digital debate, I took the above picture on slide film. It's the kind of gorgeous sky that you can only find in Alberta or Montana.

Happy Earth Day. Now go hug a tree.

Singer/Songwriter's Competition

God Help Me...

I am barley watching American Idol...meaning it's on in the background and my ears are 25% present at most. I'm not a regular viewer of the show so I have no idea who's left or who left or if anyone is really considered to be the next big star. But I'll take an educated guess and say...NONE.

The first chick that came out sang a Chaka Khan song...I saw Chaka Khan...and let me tell you, she ain't no Chaka Khan. This is Chaka Khan...

American Idol is symbolic of what is wrong with the music industry today. And it pisses me off that this year's Grammy® Awards was chock-full of AI grads. PLEASE, will someone please give us some original talent? A singer who writes kickass songs would be good. A singer that is drawn to music because music is the blood that runs through their veins would be good. A singer who is not interested in becoming a celebutante would be good.

Don't tell me the Idol contestants are young talents that will develop into greatness. Ain't gonna happen. The 12 year-old on Britain's Got Talent could blow every single one of the AI contestants off the stage singing that Michael Jackson song he did on BGT. Of course, he's from Swansea, home town of Badfinger's Pete Ham, Tom Evans and Mike Gibbins so that might explain his edge. And I guess the UK is just a better breeding ground for music talent. Which doesn't exactly make sense since Britain's musical icons - from the British Invasion onwards - have all been influenced by the American blues greats.

I'm really hoping someone - wait a second...can someone get a cane and pull this dude off the stage? - the one that's playing dress-up and thinks he can sing the Bee Gees...OMG and people are cheering for him and Randy is telling him that he can REALLY sing. I can't believe I'm going to say this but, "Thank you, Simon Cowell" for a reality check on the BG boy. All right, back to my original thought...

I'm REALLY hoping that someone can prove me wrong. So much so that I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I'm going to open my own music competition right here, right now.

Here's the deal:
1. You have to write and sing your own song.
2. You can be a solo artist or a group.
3. You have to be American or Canadian (no Brits 'cause that just wouldn't be fair).
4. You have to record it as a video and we have to be able to tell it's you actually singing...no Milli Vanilli shit.
5. Your video has to have the embedding enabled and be available to post on my blog via youtube or some other accessible service.
6. You can be as old or as young as you are.
7. You can't be signed to a label.
8. The deadline to enter is George Carlin's birthday...if you don't know it and can't look it up you don't belong on any stage, much less mine.

How to enter? Email me a link to your video to info@cheshercat.com with Real Musician Contest in the subject line. Also, tell me a little about yourself/selves so I know you're not nucking futs.

How the competition will be judged? I'm going to post the videos on here in groups of five and open it up for votes - from a jury of voters that read my blog so as not to have errant voting by the band/singer canvassing their friends and family. The video with the least number of votes will get voted off the blog and it will be removed forever. Depending on how many entries, we will have semi-finalist and finalist rounds...whatever.

The prize? Well, since I mentioned Badfinger, I'm going to give the winner this $300 framed print of the Swansea boys backstage:

I easily decided on Badfinger as the prize because they represent the level of songwriting and singing ability we're looking for in this competition. I will also do a photo shoot with the winners (in Los Angeles or if I'm ever in your area) onstage and offstage for free and/or design a CD cover for you, for free. You can check some of my CD and music DVD designs HERE.

So, all singer/songwriters out there who think they really have the talent and could have competed in a competition with the likes of the musicians in Everybody I Shot Is Dead (I suggest you check them out on youtube before you submit) send me a link to your song. You've got until George Carlin's birthday, which should give you enough time to pull together a video of your best performance.

I can' t promise you a recording contract or exposure to millions but you never know...this little competition may just catch on. It's worth a shot...and the best I can hope for is that I'll be entertained and proven wrong.

And while we're waiting for your entries, any of my readers out there who would like to be a judge, drop me a comment or shoot me an email. This will be fun...and wouldn't it be amazing if we found 'THE ONE'? I will also take suggestions in the comment section of this post on a good name for the competition.

Other things going on here:

It's not too late to enter the Ol' Skool vs Digital competition. So far, I only have three entries with all the correct answers - Is one of them you? - not enough to fill out all the prizes, so enter NOW. You could be the grand prize winner. If you've already entered and haven't received an email letting you know we received your entry, please resubmit it 'cause it must have been sucked into cyberhell.

I'm Having Fun

Wow, I've received tons of feedback from people really enjoying the contest, picking between the film photos and digital photos. Well, I really appreciate each and every one of you who have participated. It was been a real eye-opener for me and is inspiring me to take this discussion further once the winners are determined.

I've decided to give the contest an extra 48 hours, mainly because I just sent notification about the contest out to my mailing list and I want to give them the chance to participate, since they are supposed to be the VIPs who get the first shot at everything. And speaking of my mailing list, I'd love for all my new Twitter friends and any other new friends of the blog to sign up. It's super simple...just go to my website and you'll see a little box below the menu bar on the left. Type your email address in the box that says "email" and click the "Sign Me Up" button.

Speaking of my website, I still haven't posted anything on there about the contest - another reason to extend - someone please remind me to do that first thing tomorrow. Anyway, the reason you want to sign up is that I notify my mailing list of new things that are happening before I blog it (okay, except this time I kinda screwed up) and sometimes I do specials that only go to the mailing list. It's especially important now because I have a couple of huge announcements coming up, including a very special event (hopefully) that's in the planning stages. Also good to know, I don't send out spammy stuff, I don't email people more than once a month (today's was only the second email this year) and I never share or sell your email address with anyone. I hate it when people do that.

In other social networking news, I would love to connect with more people on Facebook. So, if you're on there, please send me a friend request. You'll get to know another side of me over there as it's more instantaneous than my blog. As an example, I like to post mobile photos up there...mostly goofy stuff such as today's photo, titled "Eating a Burger on the Corner of Hollywood and Highland":

Notice the stealth-like way I integrated today's photo into the post?

And my new favorite way to waste time and procrastinate is Twitter. Are you on Twitter? This is me on Twitter. Please follow me (sheesh, that sounds stupid, like I'm the Pied Piper or something). I've met a lot of people over there. Some of you are probably reading this right now. The thing I love about it is your posts are limited to 140 characters. It's fun to exercise and stretch one's writing skills...you gotta be brief...ybe good at bantering...and make sure you're not boring. Twitter is where I got the fodder for my John Mayer Sucks post. Here's what my Twitter page looks like right now:

See, I said Hi to you. The only drawback of Twitter is the addiction factor, which led me to post this little diddy: I'm going into the basement to mix up some medicine...not coming out 'til I come up with a pill to cure Twitter addiction...KER-CHING!!!

Anyway, that's enough social networking crap for one post. It's time for me to get the sleep I thought I was going to get last night, but didn't. My apologies for typos and poor grammar in this post...my eyeballs are falling out so there's no editing or rewriting tonight.

If you haven't done the contest thing, go do it now.

Win Frank Zappa

Hey People...get your finger on the scrolly button and head down to the previous post and enter the Ol' Skool v. Digital contest to win this valuable piece of artistry:

I want Frank to go to a nice home...do you have a nice home? Do you have a friend who has a nice home? If so, tell them and everyone else you know to stop on by. We've had a lot of people stopping by but not as many entries as I'd like. Don't wait until the last minute. And don't make me extend the contest...I don't think I can handle the suspense.

I know some of you are finding the challenge to get the right answers rather daunting. Just click on the photos to see them bigger and feel your way (with your intuition, not your hands) to the right answer. It can't be much harder than breathing.

In other non-breaking news, I'm really really tired, even though I feel I've accomplished nothing this weekend. I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight and greet Monday which the energy of an atom bomb. Keep your defensive gear handy. And consider yourself forewarned.

Now, git yerself down there and play the game. I've been told it's actually fun.

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